Review: The Prism Effect by J. Wint

The Prism Effect by J. Wint is set in a future post-apocalyptic Earth (or, rather, on some belt structures orbiting the now almost uninhabitable Earth) and it follows the main character Jet through the beginning of his university career. He's not a normal university student, though, he has a rare condition that makes his eyes glow and renders him an outcast - a condition about which not much is known, except that there is no cure. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially the first 2/3 of it when it focused on the mystery of the condition and Jet dealing with it and making connections with others on campus.

The slow pursuit of more information about this condition and the way that's woven in with his university life (which is mostly sport-focused) is well done. I'm not the biggest sports fan or anything, but I found the way that was done realistic and I never felt it overwhelmed the story. It allowed us to see some aspects of Jet's day to day without having to go too deeply into the lessons he would be learning, which I'm sure wouldn't make sense to us as this is in a very different world far in the future!

The aspect I liked the most was Cutter's whole character and the way he interacted with the main character. Other characters are also slowly brought in and I really enjoyed the formation of the main cast around the mystery. Without giving too many spoilers, it worked well to see them each deal with the condition in their own ways and to watch Jet try to get answers through bringing them together. 

In the last part of the book there's a drastic shift that didn't go smoothly for me. This is the first book in the series and it makes sense to leave things open, but I felt that more of the personal character arcs/relationships should have been addressed at this point. Instead, the author chose to focus on revealing aspects of the history and mysteries around the condition in a way that changed the tone of the book without providing enough answers for me. It would have been a much stronger ending if some of the personal issues had been resolved or explored more deeply at the end, leaving the bigger picture to be dealt with more slowly over the remainder of the series. 

You're not going to be able to predict some of the reveals from this later part of the book and if you enjoy that kind of "everything is not as it seems" twist you're sure to enjoy this last portion more than I did, but I'll cut this short before I start spoiling things!

A final note on world-building. As you know, world-building is one of the things I enjoy quite a bit and I felt that this world was unique and it's hard to pin down a specific sub-genre for this book. There are a lot of elements of some great sub-genres all rolled into one and I think it worked well. 

Overall, a great book that had me hooked, but failed to give me a satisfying enough ending. I may very well go back and finish the series, because it really was well-written and I have faith that the author has planned the rest of it well, but you should go into it knowing it's very much a first in series and you will need to read on to get real answers. 

This is the last of my team's Quarterfinalists that I'll be reading and reviewing for SPSFC3 as part of  team Peripheral Prospectors and I'm glad I could end this first phase of the contest with such a gripping book! This review is only my own opinion on the book. The decision will be made on whether to move the book forward in the competition or not as a team once we've all read and discussed the books! I look forward to discovering and sharing more great books in the next phase of the competition.